7 Reasons To Sell From Your Own Site Rather Than Etsy

Sites like Etsy, Zazzle, RedBubble and other third party online shop solutions are great to get your feet wet when you start selling your creations online or if you don’t have your own site yet to directly sell your work from.

However, I always recommend to get your own self-hosted WordPress site as soon as possible. Then you can go and install any of the numerous free or premium shop plugins and start selling directly from your own site.

Why? Well, here are seven reasons why I recommend selling from your own site rather than from an Etsy store:

 

1. More Control

 

Artfire decided to close all free accounts, Etsy has grown so much that it is hard to keep up with the competition and other online marketplaces closed their doors completely and left you out in the cold.

If you rely on any third party store solutions you have no control over your own business. That’s not smart. You need to be in control of your own store and not be at the mercy of someone else.

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2. No Customer Distractions

 

When you go and have a look at any Etsy store product page, you will find about 40 links that lure customers away from that page and away from that store!

On your own site this will not happen as all links will only lead to more of your own products.

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3. Better Design

 

It’s hard to stand out on Etsy and similar third party e-commerce solutions. All stores look and feel the same which also makes it hard for customers to remember your individual shop.

If you have a shop on your own site you can give it a design that brings out your individuality and that suits your products.

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4. Easier List Building

 

The money is in the list. This is a truth that pretty much any internet marketer agrees with. You need to collect as many email addresses of (potential) customers as possible.

The good news is that all marketplaces that let you sell stuff from their site will indeed have mailing lists but the bad news is that they use them to increase their own business, not yours.

Now, if you sell from your own site you can use a service like Aweber to let people subscribe to your mailing list and then cross and upsell to them, send out special discount offers and even create automated email series.

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5. Customer Convenience

 

So you have an Etsy store and a blog/website (you do have a self hosted site right? If not, click here). This means you have to send your customers from one site to the other and back. You also need them to remember two domain names, bookmark two sites and share content from two sites. Hmmm, that’s not really ideal, is it?

It is way more convenient for your customers if your blog and shop reside under the same domain name, don’t ya think?

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6. More Referrals

 

A lot of people buy something on sites like Etsy, Artfire etc. but in the end never remember the name of the individual shop or seller. So when asked where they got the beautiful earrings, necklace or painting they will just say they got it from Etsy. That’s great for Etsy but not so much for you.

Selling from your own site will make it easier for them to remember you and your shop and tell others about it.

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7. Better Search Engine Optimization

 

It’s much easier to rank in Google search results with a shop on your own site than with an Etsy store. Yes, Etsy does give you some control over how your store will appear in search results.

But with a WordPress shop you will be able to have much more granular control as you can change titles, set keywords, add a description and even get a free page analysis which tells you how to optimize each single page for SEO purposes.

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Where to find WordPress Shop Plugins

 

So, now that you’ve decided to set up your own WP store, you will have to find a WordPress shop plugin that works for you. There are quite a few out there and they all have different features and are made to suit different needs. The best way to go about it is to search the official WP plugins repository or just start a Google search.

When I did this search it took me almost a full day to compile a list of the 16 best WordPress shop plugins, so be prepared to invest some time!

However, if you’re signed up to the free Creative Web Biz newsletter, which brings you free weekly tips, tools and resources, you’ll get the complete list (with all sixteen store plugins) straight to your inbox next Monday (11/28/11).

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image by psdgraphics

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